Communicating Well To Ask For What You Need | by Emily Patel
“I know what needs to be done, but how do I communicate that with colleagues?” This was the question I recently posed to my coaching cohort when I felt a little stuck about communicating a proposed data change within my organisation. Thankfully their helpful response put me on the right track, and it's for that reason that I want to share the wisdom they imparted.
Communicating Internally Or Externally – Follow The Steps!
In a roundabout way, the steps below are what my coaching peers encouraged me to do…
1) Get To Know Your Audience And Their Needs
Having sidestepped this initially, once reminded, I immediately knew I needed to reset and start again. I went back to the drawing board and ‘got to know my audience’ and specifically focused on the common ground between us. I sought out the space where our professional roles crossed and made this central to my communication, that is the end goal we are all trying to achieve after all!
2) Communicate The Right Message At The Right Time
Secondly, I looked for that ‘sweet spot’ - what was I learning with my new data skills that had been missing from the process before? Once I had worked that out, I identified what the right time to communicate this would be. Would I tell people individually or as a group, and at what point? I was getting to the stage where I needed more internal buy-in to move my data project forward, so the sooner the better.
3) Introduce The Context – How Is This Relevant?
When I found that right time, not only did I share my new data skills, but I felt so encouraged from the coaching session that I showed colleagues the end goal and everything in between, Pivot Table and all! This offered the context as well as the progress made so far, while a reminder of the mutual end goal of my data project made buy-in to the proposed change relevant to my colleagues as well as me.
4) The Right Channels
Having already identified my audience's needs, I knew that I would need to divide and conquer. I met some of my colleagues face to face, while others preferred to meet online. I tailored my approach to work best for them, it was me who wanted their buy-in after all.
5) Measure Your Comms
This is a step that I added in myself and is key to any comms approach. Measuring my impact and finding the ROI will help me to know how well my proposed change has been received. In particular, I will be looking for early adopters, or those championing my proposal. Only time is going to tell on the outcome of my communication, but the good news is I have follow-up meetings booked with colleagues to talk more about ‘data’ so it's looking promising!
In conclusion, through my data project conundrum, I have been reminded that the audience is key to any comms approach. Without knowing them and understanding their motivation, how can communication be successful?
Finally, who knew that opening up and sharing a challenge with my coaching peers would result in wisdom and an approach to moving forward? Why not give it a go yourself in your next coaching session? It just goes to show that a problem shared, really is a problem halved.
Emily Patel is a Data Literacy/ DIBD apprentice at Multiverse based in Essex, UK. She’s writing for the Apprentice Lens as part of the Blogging Team. Here’s more about her:
'Hi, I’m Emily, Marketing and Communications Manager for the charity Kids Inspire. I write and tell real-life stories for a living but made a promise to myself to blog outside of work for my own wellbeing. This is the start of that promise and I hope to capture the interest of readers along the way.'